Kindle Fire

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Presidential Scorecard

Like everyone else, when I first heard Donald Trump was entering the presidential race, I figured he was doing a bit and predicted he'd go away long before anybody took him seriously. Boy, was I wrong.

Today, however, I have taken a second look.

Trump is waking up some of the RINOs. The criticisms of Trump are clearly unfair and simply display the shrill response from the Left. Long term employees call him a strong and merciful leader and say he is far more righteous and of high integrity than people may think and while it may surprise many, he’s actually humble when it comes to his generosity and kindness. A good example is a story that tells of his limo breaking down on a deserted highway outside of New York City. A middle-aged couple stopped to help him and as a thank-you he paid off their mortgage, but he didn’t brag about that. Generous and good people rarely talk of charity they bestow on others. But as much as all this is interesting, the real thing that people want to know is what Donald Trump’s plan is for America. It’s funny how so many people say they don’t know what it is, or they act like Trump is hiding his agenda. The information is readily available if people would do a little homework. But, since most Americans won't do their own research, here, in no particular order, is an overview of many of Trump's positions and plans:

1. Trump believes that America should not intervene militarily in other country’s problems without being compensated for doing so. If America is going to risk the lives of our soldiers and incur the expense of going to war, then the nations we help must be willing to pay for our help. Using the Iraq War as an example, he cites the huge monetary expense to American taxpayers (over $1.5 trillion, and possibly much more depending on what sources are used to determine the cost) in addition to the cost in human life. He suggests that Iraq should have been required to give us enough of their oil to pay for the expenses we incurred. He includes in those expenses the medical costs for our military and $5 million for each family that lost a loved one in the war and $2 million for each family of soldiers who received severe injuries.

2. Speaking of the military, Trump wants America to have a strong military again. He believes the single most important function of the federal government is national defense. He has said he wants to find the General Patton or General MacArthur that could lead our military buildup back to the strength it needs to be. As a CINC, Trump is a realist. It's always easier to negotiate from a position of strength.

· American interests come first. Always. No apologies.\ Maximum firepower and military preparedness.
· Only go to war to win.
· Stay loyal to your friends and suspicious of your enemies.
· Keep the technological sword razor sharp.
· See the unseen. Prepare for threats before they materialize.
· Respect and support our present and past warriors.

4. Trump believes that terrorists who are captured should be treated as military combatants, not as criminals.

5. Trump makes the point that China’s manipulation of their currency has given them unfair advantage in our trade dealings with them. He says we must tax their imports to offset their currency manipulation, which will cause American companies to be competitive again and drive manufacturing back to America and create jobs here. Although he sees China as the biggest offender, he believes that America should protect itself from all foreign efforts to take our jobs and manufacturing. For example, Ford is building a plant in Mexico and Trump suggests that every part or vehicle Ford makes in Mexico be taxed 35% if they want to bring it into the U. S., which would cause companies like Ford to no longer be competitive using their Mexican operations and move manufacturing back to the U. S., once again creating jobs here.

6. Trump wants passage of NOPEC legislation (No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act – NOPEC – S.394), which would allow the government to sue OPEC for violating antitrust laws. According to Trump, that would break up the cartel. He also wants to unleash our energy companies to drill domestically (sound like Sarah Palin’s drill baby, drill?) thereby increasing domestic production creating jobs and driving domestic costs of oil and gas down while reducing dependence on foreign oil.

7. Trump believes a secure border is critical for both security and prosperity in America. He wants to build a wall to stop illegals from entering and put controls on immigration. (And he says he’ll get Mexico to pay for the wall, which many have scoffed at, but given his business successes I wouldn’t put it past him.) He also wants to enforce our immigration laws.

8. Trump wants a radical change to the tax system to not only make it better for average Americans, but also to encourage businesses to stay here and foreign businesses to move here. The resulting influx of money to our nation would do wonders for our economy. He wants to make America the place to do business. He also wants to lower the death tax and the taxes on capital gains and dividends. This would put more than $1.6 trillion back into the economy and help rebuild the 1.5 million jobs we’ve lost to the current tax system. He also wants to charge companies who outsource jobs overseas a 20% tax, but for those willing to move jobs back to America they would not be taxed. And for citizens he has a tax plan that would allow Americans to keep more of what they earn and spark economic growth. He wants to change the personal income tax to:

· Up to $30,000 taxed at 1%
· From $30,000 to $100,000 taxed at 5%
· From $100,000 to $1,000,000 taxed at 10%
· $1,000,000 and above taxed at 15%

9. Trump wants Obamacare repealed. He says it’s a “job-killing, health care-destroying monstrosity” that “can’t be reformed, salvaged, or fixed.” He believes in allowing real competition in the health insurance marketplace to allow competition to drive prices down. He also believes in tort reform to get rid of defensive medicine and lower costs.

10. Trump wants spending reforms in Washington, acknowledging that America spends far more than it receives in revenue. He has said he believes that if we don’t stop increasing the national debt once it hits $24 trillion it will be impossible to save this country.

11. Even though he says we need to cut spending, he does not want to harm those on Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security. He believes that the citizens have faithfully paid into the system to have these services available and that the American government has an obligation to fulfill its end of the bargain and provide those benefits. Therefore, he wants to build the economy up so that we have the revenue to pay those costs without cutting the benefits to the recipients. He disagrees with Democrats who think raising taxes is the answer and says that when you do that you stifle the economy. On the other hand, when you lower taxes and create an environment to help businesses they will grow, hire more workers, and those new workers will be paying taxes that become more tax revenue for the government.

12. Trump also wants reform of the welfare state saying that America needs “a safety net, not a hammock.” He believes in a welfare to work program that would help reduce the welfare roles and encourage people to get back to work. And he wants a crackdown on entitlement fraud.

13. Trump believes climate change is a hoax.

14. Trump opposes Common Core.

15. Trump is pro-life, although he allows for an exception due to rape, incest, or the life of the mother.

16. Trump is pro 2nd Amendment rights.

17. Trump’s view on same-sex marriage is that marriage is between a man and a woman, but he also believes that this is a states' rights issue, not a federal issue.

18. Trump supports the death penalty.

Trump believes there is a lack of common sense in the liberal/progressive philosophy and thus he has tapped into a great backlash against socialism and what the past administrations have passed off as reality. who strikes YOU as being better prepared to save the planet? Wait, don't be a sucker. Ya see, the planet isn't in peril at all...